What's your favorite internet falsehood on photography?

[Tin Can]

Morty

Worked on hollywood monster movies

also mr clean banned the evil doer

do your research

I forget where I read it, but it's my understanding that Ansel Adams was a Mortensen critic. And I can understand a bit why that might have been the case.

One of the important principles of consistently obtaining good black and white results, is to expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights. It's based on how film behaves while being developed, that shadow areas on the negative (less dense areas) aren't affected nearly as much by changes in development time, as are highlights on the negative (areas of greater density). This principle is the basis of Ansel Adams Zone System.

I have several Mortensen books, and I couldn't believe it that he stated one should do the opposite, expose for the highlights and develop for the shadows. I had to read it a second time. This is profoundly wrong. Clearly, Mortensen didn't understand the fundamentals of how film behaves while being developed.

So, it's understandable why Mortenson might have drawn criticism from A. A.

[ic-racer]

A shorter thread would list truths about photography found on the internet.

[Jim Jones]

William Mortensen was controversial, but he was also talented and influential. I consider his book, The Model, to be one of the best sources of information for models and their photographers for the past 87 years. His books on technique show results that most photographers would never master until Photoshop, half a century later. Mortensen, like Edward Weston and other fine artists, had to struggle against the Puritan censorship that inflicted its influence even over the U. S. Postal Service. The famous feud between Mortensen and Adams had an unfortunate argument between greatly different approaches to photography. Adams excelled at presenting nature in the best possible light. (pun attempted) Mortensen went beyond that: he could create images only in his mind, and then use appropriate technique to present them as did artists for thousands of years. Eight Ansel Adams posters adorn my living room: I display nothing of Mortensen. Perhaps today I'll try to download some of his creations to correct that.

[Tin Can]

William Mortensen was controversial, but he was also talented and influential. I consider his book, The Model, to be one of the best sources of information for models and their photographers for the past 87 years. His books on technique show results that most photographers would never master until Photoshop, half a century later. Mortensen, like Edward Weston and other fine artists, had to struggle against the Puritan censorship that inflicted its influence even over the U. S. Postal Service. The famous feud between Mortensen and Adams had an unfortunate argument between greatly different approaches to photography. Adams excelled at presenting nature in the best possible light. (pun attempted) Mortensen went beyond that: he could create images only in his mind, and then use appropriate technique to present them as did artists for thousands of years. Eight Ansel Adams posters adorn my living room: I display nothing of Mortensen. Perhaps today I'll try to download some of his creations to correct that.

Thank you

[djdister]

One of Mortensen's photos, created using extensive projection manipulation, and highly theatrical at that. It should come as no surprise why AA and him were not best buddies...


The Incubus, William Mortensen, 1924

[Vaughn]

And this matters to...?

To those who read and reply to the thread, such as yourself...

[Pieter]

To those who read and reply to the thread, such as yourself...

Not really. I don't give a rat's ass. I just replied based on the thread subject and hoping for something with more substance and relevance.

[jnantz]

Not really. I don't give a rat's ass. I just replied based on the thread subject and hoping for something with more substance and relevance.

maybe the biggest falsehood is that there will be a post of substance and relevance ?

[paulbarden]

maybe the biggest falsehood is that there will be a post of substance and relevance ?

Bingo!!!!

[Michael R]

maybe the biggest falsehood is that there will be a post of substance and relevance ?

Another thing - I don’t think it’s the internet per se that is to blame. I mean yes it is mostly wrong, but a lot of the wrongness is just the parroting of the same old wrong from bad written material and teaching about the photographic process. It’s not really anything new.